The Federal Reserve’s not-so-surprising decision to cut interest rates comes with this rather direct statement that more cuts aren’t likely to follow. The Fed’s Open Market Committee voted 9-1 in favor of a quarter-point cut. Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, was the lone dissenter, favoring no change. In announcing the cut, the […]
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James B. Stewart makes a salient point about corporate governance in reference to the ouster of Stan O’Neal at Merrill Lynch. While praising Merrill’s board for acting swiftly, Stewart wonders if it missed the warning signs of trouble. AP Stan O’Neal The Merrill board was packed with O’Neal’s friends and hand-picked colleagues, and O’Neal was […]
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Brown and Rodriguez go shopping What’s a livable wage in Houston? That’s the question underlying an interesting experiment by Houston City Council member Peter Brown. On Monday, Brown began living for one week on the wages of a city health department worker, Belinda Rodriguez. He’s blogging about the experience. What’s incredible is that Belinda herself […]
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Today started the way most days do, except that as I settled down in front of the computer, I took a little longer than usual to mute CNBC. Suddenly, I realized I was hearing that fake-classic rock standard “Gimme Some Money” by Spinal Tap (or the Thamesmen as they were known back then, according to […]
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The Wall Street Journal looks at the looming “battle of the band games” ($) gearing up for Christmas between Rock Bank and Guitar Hero III. Rock Band is a new entry from the creators of Guitar Hero whose company is now owned by Viacom. That means it’s getting heavily promoted on MTV and other channels. Unlike […]
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Tim Hartford, who writes The Undercover Economist blog for the Financial Times recently posted a series of videos from a talk he gave to a group of economics lecturers on how to make economics interesting. The first segment on applying economics to speed dating was interesting, but I decided to post the second installment because […]
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File photo In the ongoing rate battle with Allstate, state insurance officials claim the company is overcharging policyholders by $166 million, and that’s just in its base rates. In a filing earlier this month in which it demanded refunds, the state insurance department questioned Allstate’s rate increase, which it enacted in August, saying it was based […]
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I’ve posted previous lists of options backdating cases that have been filed against various companies. Now, Kevin LaCroix at the D&O Diary blog has begun compiling a list of the progress and resolutions. He breaks the list (PDF file) into seven tables, based on the following information: options backdating securities class action lawsuit settlements and dismissals, as well […]
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